Turkey’s popular prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, backed by a majority of voters, has turned Turkey into the Mideast’s role model for successful democracy, and unleashed the latent economic power of this nation of 75 million.

“Zero problems’ opened the Mideast’s doors to Turkish business, restoring Turkey to the former dominant regional leadership it held before World War I.

Turkey’s popular support for the Palestinians led to a bitter clash with Israel. As a result, Turkey has become the target of fierce attacks by the US Congress and media for no longer favoring Israeli interests. The Wall Street Journal, the North American mouthpiece of Israel’s hard right, has led the attacks against Turkey.

Claims by the right that Erdogn is turning Turkey into an Islamic dictatorship are false. The stable, democratic, productive Turkey he is building is a boon for all concerned. Istanbul used to be the Paris of the Muslim world. It’s returning to that role again.

"The data from the radar in Turkey, combined with an array of other data and American intelligence assessments of missile threats - will be shared with allies, including Israel, in keeping with longstanding arrangements, officials said. A similar American missile-defense radar already operates in Israel."

"The Turkish Armed Forces targeted and killed those Kurdish youth - some as young as 12 - suspecting them of being terrorists associated with the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). The killing took place in a political context where the Turkish state's proudly conducted war on terror has been targeting citizens of Turkey not only militarily but also judicially with the force of law.

Strikingly, neither the Turkish army nor the Turkish government has yet expressed anything resembling an official apology regarding the killing of the thirty-five Kurdish citizens. In telling contrast to his prompt and passionate denunciations of Israel's 'operational accidents' that kill Palestinian civilians, Prime Minister Erdogan kept completely silent for more than twenty-four hours after the deadly operation by the Turkish Armed Forces..."

"Turkey has strongly reacted to a possible Greek Cypriot plan to put oil and gas exploration rights around the eastern Mediterranean island as collateral for an international bailout package it desperately needs to protect its economy from going bankrupt."

"Thousands of protesters in Istanbul clashed with police in the most violent rally Turkey has seen in years. Hundreds have been injured and dozens arrested in fierce rioting which the media has dubbed the Turkish Spring as it spreads across the country.

"Police in Istanbul have withdrawn from Taksin Square, allowing the mass protests to continue unabated, Turkish media reports. Istanbul and Ankara are in a second day of violent protest with teargas and water cannon deployed and over 900 arrested.

'This started simply as a peaceful sit-in to save a park, but it's become one of the worst state attacks on protesters in recent memory -- and a frightening example of the Turkish government's growing eagerness to crack down on its own citizens,' an online petition demanding that Erdogan 'End the Crackdown Now!', reads..."

The entire plan for Taksim Square’s redesign is part of an overall neoliberal turn that Prime Minister Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) are central to. Istanbul's city center has been undergoing a rapid process of gentrification, especially in the historic neighborhoods of Sulukule, Tarlabaşı, Tophane, and Fener-Balat, which housed the poor, the immigrants, the Kurds, and the Roma. The goal of this so-called “urban renewal” is to make room for more tourist attractions, or to—at minimum—“clean up” the neighborhoods, removing working class urban dwellers who might scare off tourists. The idea is that this new and improved city center will attract foreign investment in Istanbul, which is to be further developed into a financial and cultural hub at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East.

Some outlets have linked the Gezi Park protests to the AKP's recent restrictions on the sale of alcohol.Journalists doing so are attempting to portray the Gezi Park occupation as a conflict between Erdoğan's Islamism and the country's secular ethos. The secularist opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has also taken this stance, and has tried to coopt the uprising by turning the movement into a symbol of culture wars between secular youth and an older Islamist generation. Attractive as that framing may be to Western media, it could not be further from the truth. While many protesters are without a doubt staunch secularists who are motivated by opposition to the AKP's increasing social conservatism, there is no indication that this is what ultimately brought thousands of people out into the streets. In fact, when CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, came to Gezi Park to speak, protesters sang over him, preventing him from being heard. It is clear that the movement thus far is about a conflict in visions for urban space between ruling elites and the people who actually live, work, and play in the city. In this regard, it is telling that #DirenGeziPari emerged as the original hashtag on Twitter. This connects to protests held in 2009 in Istanbul against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which took place under the banner of “Diren Istanbul”—“Resist Istanbul”—cleverly shortened in translation to “ResIstanbul.”

At the same time, and as the protests appear to spread and take on a more generally anti-government tone, it is not unlikely that general dissatisfaction with Erdoğan will eventually win out as the primary message of the movement. In that case, we can expect to see a rift between the liberal secularist opposition who joined the protest on 31 May and after and the radical protesters who spawned the movement in the first place.

"...Having very skilfully manipulated world public opinion with the help, among other measures, of a gigantic public relations apparatus, for more than ten years, Mr Erdogan's government, like its main allies, is currently experiencing a deep crisis of legitimacy both at home and abroad. Instead of boosting Mr Erdogan's standing, the false flag bombing attack in Reyhanli has actually unleashed a nationwide popular reaction against his total subservience to Western imperialism."

At the same time, and as the protests appear to spread and take on a more generally anti-government tone, it is not unlikely that general dissatisfaction with Erdoğan will eventually win out as the primary message of the movement. In that case, we can expect to see a rift between the liberal secularist opposition who joined the protest on 31 May and after and the radical protesters who spawned the movement in the first place.

Informative piece. It outlined the role of liberal wings within political systems, which is to take charge of the situation and become nothing more than a proxy for the ruling order, The media is enlisted to accompany the infiltration.

"Turkey has entered a fourth day of turmoil, as the country is swept away in the biggest wave of anti-government protesting in years. Thousands now flood the streets, as police continue to crack down on protesters with tear gas and water cannon.

"...Predictably, harsh police represssion led to the protesters being joined by top cadres from Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP). And sooner rather than later, the Taksin Square green theme morphed into a Tahrir Square-style 'Down With The Dictator'..."

"...These people are my friends. They are my students, my relatives. They have no 'hidden agenda' as the state likes to say. Their agenda is out there. It is very clear. The whole country is being sold to corporations by the government, for the construction of malls, luxury condominiums, freeways, dams and nuclear plants. The government is looking for (and creating when necessary) any excuse to attack Syria against its people's will."

"My father and grandmother have never seen anything like this. In three generations the police have never behaved like this. This is not normal in Turkey and I don't understand why this is happening.."

"Protesters in Turkey are raging against PM Erdogan. What is the source of their dissatisfaction? Is Turkey experiencing its own version of the Arab Spring? CrossTalking with Alan Ba-Meir, Zayd Allisa and Michael Dickinson..."

"On this episode of the program, George Galloway comments on the Turkish unrest and asks if the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is paying the price for the policies he has been pursuing across the border in Syria and elsewhere over the last few years."

"Hundreds of Turkish police clashed with protesters after taking over Taksim Square in Istanbul. The raid allowed removal of barricades and banners. PM Erdogan praised the troops for removing the 'rags' as he branded the revolutionary symbols.

The few protesters present at the square when police arrived were quickly dispersed with teargas, eyewitnesses report. They retreated to neighboring areas and are launching systematic assaults at police forces, being beaten back each time.

RT's crew reporting from the scene: 'There are serious clashes in the small streets surrounding the square. They are running after each other tossing stones, bottles and smoke grenades there. It's a real meat grinder in there,' reports RT's Ahraf El Sabbagh."

This is what "democracy" looks like in Canada. The Turkish government understands that type of "democracy" completely. Democracy is about elections every few years to confirm that the global oligarchies are the rulers.

It's well understood that any and all forms of escalation are possible in the interests of maintaining what the Turkish government and its allies designate as democracy, in a manner fully consistent with what they’ve exercised on numerous occasions within their own fiefdoms.

"For Thierry Meyssan, the Turkish people are not protesting against Recip Tayyeb Erdogan's autocratic style, but against his policies: in other words against the Muslim Brotherhood, of which he is the mentor.

What started on Taksim Square is not a color revolution over a new building project, but an uprising that calls the 'Arab Spring' into question..."

"For Thierry Meyssan, the Turkish people are not protesting against Recep Erdogan's autocratic style but against his policies; in other words, against the Muslim Brotherhood, of which he is the mentor. What started on Taksim Square is not a color revolution over a new building project, but an uprising that has spread across the entire country: in short it is a revolution that calls the 'Arab Spring' into question."

"Activists returning to Taksim Square will be considered 'supporters or members of a terror group,' Turkey's EU minister told local media. This comes after police bulldozed the tent camp in Gezi Park in one of the worst nights of violence in Istanbul..."

We want to make our press release known to the public since it was prevented from being read on the Taksim Square by the police. We are here and we are going to continue to be here.

The struggle of the Taksim Solidarity Group and all the citizens who supported it during the process of Gezi Park has proved to be justified. This struggle for democracy aswell as human and civic rights has had the widest participation in our countries history and was proven right once again by the judicial decision. The need to save the historical Taksim Square and the Gezi Park has been reassured by this sentence.

We are here to communicate the legal decision which cancels the plans to render Taksim Square and Gezi Park a place without identity, without people and full of concrete. We are here to open this place to its real owners again, that is to everybody. We are here to notify the legal cancelation of the plan to make Taksim a place without identity and to build a artillery barrack in Gezi Park. We are here to insist in the fact that all the interventions done to the park since 27th of May 2013 have been illegal. As it is illegal to close this public space to the people by using police force.

We are here because we have the right to be part of decisions about our living spaces.

Our public park, which is also our gathering point during natural disasters, is under police occupation for days. Our access to our square, the space where we voice our demand for democratic rights, is prohibited. Government, by its practices, made our living spaces, parks, squares inaccessible for us.

Inspite of this repression and violence we are still coming together where ever we live, with all the values and colours that make us to be ‘we’, with our surprising common sense, our strenght to resist, our determination and incredible creativity.

We are here to remember the people we lost, to denounce the violence that still goes on all over Turkey, and to remind our demands once again. We are here for Ethem, Mehmet and Abdullah. We are here to demand the release of all our friends who were arrested when their only purpose was to meet in the park. We are here to exclaim that it is a terribly injust to release the police officer who provoked Ethem’s death.

We have seen that in the absence of police violence we are able to strew the seeds for a new life in a peaceful way, in our streets, in our squares and in our parks.

Neither the media blackout, nor the random and unlawful practices of the government, nor the arrests, custodies, and unrooted accusations that aim to divide us, will be able to stop our solidarity.

We haven’t abandoned our solidarity, our demands and our gains and we won’t do so in the future. We will remind them once more:

The government has to declare urgently that it abandons the planed demolition of AKM and the – already juridically declared illegal – plans and projects that aim to deprive Taksim and the Gezi Park of people.

We demand to stop the prohibitions and the gathering, demonstration, action bans in our squares and public spaces especially in Taksim and Kizilay, and in all over Turkey; all the obstacles to the right to speech should stopped.

Starting from resistance against the demolition in Taksim Gezi Park, all the responsible parties who prohibited public’s most democratic right to act, who gave the order for violent repression, who executed this order, or made sure it is executed; who caused injury of thousands and the death of five people, should be taken off their duty; the use of gas bomb and similar material should be prohibited,

All the citizens who are under arrest due to their attendance to the resistance all over the country should be released, the government has to publicly declare that no further investigation will be opened on their behalf,

We demand urgently, that all our parks that are closed to public use at the moment, that are also places we gather and take refuge in case of natural disasters, mainly Gezi Park, should be immediately opened.

"People here say that essentially Ergenekon is just a pretense under which the Prime Minister is taking people who he personally does not like and putting them in jail so as to get rid of dissident voices..."

"Now unfortunately Tayyip Erdogan became our Prime Minister and he was given a mission by the United States of America. The objective was 'the greater Middle East project of the US', designed to change the borders of the countries in North Africa and the Middle East, and Erdogan was brought to power exactly as that co-chairman of the Greater Middle East project.

In order to accomplish that mission he had to do some serious maneuvering; to appear that he is against Israel, and against the US, because a leader who is on the side of Israel..."

"At the center of Turkey's corruption scandal is a 'gas for gold' scheme that the Obama administration dragged its feet on stopping. The Turks exported some $13 Billion of gold to Tehran directly, or through the UAE, between March 2012 and July 2013. In return, the Turks received Iranian natural gas and oil..."

"Last week, an indictment was served against 308 of the millions who participated in the demonstrations, for a wide range of charges, including belonging to a terrorist group.

Lawyers who provided legal aid to protesters and advised them to remain silent during arrests are also accused of assisting terrorist groups, and a definition of the term 'coup d'etat', allows prosecutors to charge demonstrators with attempting to overthrow the government.

"Turkey has blocked Twitter hours after embattled Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan threatened to close it down ahead of a key election. It comes after audio recordings purportedly demonstrating corruption among his associates were posted..

'I don't care what the international community says. They will see the Turkish republic's strength,' Erdogan added."

mhp: 18% (In the past, this party was in the far right of the political spectrum. Now, it's closer to center)

bdp/hdp: 7% (Kurdish Party)

other: 4%

With these results, we can expect more street demonstrations in the big cities of Turkey (Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir) in the near future since Tayyip Erdogan will try to punish the people who voted for the opposition parties. Very difficult days are ahead for Turkey.

During its time in power, the AKP has restricted worker’s rights to organize and strike, intensified neoliberal employment policies, encouraged the practice of subcontracting and part-time work agreements and allowed for the structural violation of worker rights.

Workers in Turkey were once again reminded of their precarious position when at the end of January 15,000 metal workers planned to go on strike. After failing to reach an agreement with the employer’s union about better wages and the length of collective bargaining periods the workers announced that in 22 factories in ten different cities across the country they would lay down their tools and walk off the job.

However, the next day the strike was “suspended” when the government issued a Cabinet Decree deeming it a “threat to national security”. The suspension of the strike is in fact a strike ban in action. In order to prevent the workers from walking off the job, the government recalled a controversial law – approved in the aftermath of the 1980 military coup – which was designed to curtail the powers of the influential labor unions at the time....

quote:

Textile workers taking over

When in January 2013 the 94 workers of the Kazova Textile factory in Istanbul’s central Sisli neighborhood were collectively fired under false pretenses after their bosses had neglected to pay their salaries for four consecutive months, a small group of workers decided to resist. They organized regular protest marches and set up of a tent in front of the factory to prevent their former bosses from stripping the factory of anything of value.

Emboldened by the nationwide Gezi protests which rocked the country in the summer that year, the Kazova workers prepared for the next step and occupied their former workplace.

What followed was almost two years of struggles in which the resisting workers were beaten by hired thugs, tear gassed by the police and were caught up in an exhausting legal case in an attempt to claim legal ownership over the textile machinery that would allow them to provide in their own livelihoods....

"While the Western press salutes the authorisation given by Turkey to the US, allowing the US to use its military bases in order to fight Daesh (IS), Thierry Meyssan looks at the nation's internal tensions. In his view, maintaining Mr Erdogan in power, as well as the lack of a new majority during the next general elections, will rapidly lead to civil war."

"Last month, only after losing his party's parliamentary majority, President Ergogan realized that there are dangerous terrorists in neighboring Syria who are a threat to Turkey's security. Ironically, these are the same terrorists that Ankara has been arming. A compelling analysis of what is really going on with Turkey, ISIS and the Kurds."

"Iraqi FM Ibrahim al-Jaafari-has called on Turkey to coordinate with Baghdad its military campaign against positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

The top diplomat noted that he had summoned the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad last week to protest the 'violation' of Iraq's territory and sovereignty after Turkish special forces crossed into northern Iraq in 'hot pursuit' of the PKK militants.

Meanwhile, German FM Frank Walter Steinmeier called on Turkey to exercise self-restraint amid Ankara's escalating fight against the PKK. The Turkish military has been conducting strikes against PKK positions in northern Iraq adn southeastern Turkey since late July.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey since 1984. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead..."

"Iraqi FM Ibrahim al-Jaafari-has called on Turkey to coordinate with Baghdad its military campaign against positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

The top diplomat noted that he had summoned the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad last week to protest the 'violation' of Iraq's territory and sovereignty after Turkish special forces crossed into northern Iraq in 'hot pursuit' of the PKK militants.

Meanwhile, German FM Frank Walter Steinmeier called on Turkey to exercise self-restraint amid Ankara's escalating fight against the PKK. The Turkish military has been conducting strikes against PKK positions in northern Iraq adn southeastern Turkey since late July.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey since 1984. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead..."

We can't pull our military out of Iraq fast enough, what a clusterfuck that whole region is turning into.